From the battlefield to the laboratory: the use of clinical data analysis in developing models of lower limb blast injury.

A key weapon in the insurgents' armamentarium against coalition and local security forces in Iraq and Afghanistan has been the use of anti-vehicle mines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Often directed against vehicle-borne troops, these devices, once detonated, transfer considerable amounts of energy through the vehicle to the occupants. This results in severe lower limb injuries that are frequently limb threatening. Fundamental to designing novel mitigation strategies is a requirement to understand the injury mechanism by developing appropriate injury modelling tools that are underpinned by the analysis of contemporary battlefield casualty data. This article aims to summarise our understanding of the clinical course of lower limb blast injuries from IEDs and its value in developing unique injury modelling test-beds to evaluate and produce the next generation of protective equipment for reducing the devastating effects of blast injury.